


Ozymandias Rises Again

by firstversesameasthethird (itsedgzoi)



Series: Post-Exitium [1]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Shelley - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-13
Updated: 2014-10-13
Packaged: 2018-02-20 23:54:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2447726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itsedgzoi/pseuds/firstversesameasthethird
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is the first chapter of my look at what happens after the destruction of the Reapers.  A new Commander has to be chosen.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ozymandias Rises Again

**Author's Note:**

> EDIT: In the last couple paragraphs I accidentally referred to Ashley as Kelley. I'm pretty sure it's all fixed now.

“’My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!’ Nothing beside remains. Round the decay of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, the lone and level sands stretch far away.” Ashley recited.  
“You mean his name was Harbinger,” Joker commented, sounding bored.  
“It’s Shelley,” Ashley said, “he wouldn’t have known who Harbinger was, because he lived hundreds of years ago.”  
“I might get the names Ozymandias and Harbinger confused, but I definitely wouldn’t have gotten either of those confused with Shelley. That would be a pretty stupid name for a Reaper,” Joker said, with a grin that showed he was joking.  
“You really are an idiot sometimes,” Ashley said.  
Liara cleared her throat to get everyone’s attention and said, “Excuse me, but I think we should get on with this meeting.”  
Everyone in the circle nodded or muttered something in agreement. Liara found herself noticing how much all of them sitting in the shuttle bay had changed since the crash on whatever unknown planet they were stranded on a month ago. James had spent nearly all of his time exploring the forest surrounding the crash site, which had had left his clothes full of rips and tears, and had given his eyes an odd animal glint.  
Joker had suffered the worst physically. Doctor Chakwas (who had been downing dozens of pain pills a day) had confirmed that the crash had left both of his legs with multiple fractures. He had outwardly acted as cheerful as he usually was, but almost everyone in the crew had walked in on him crying at least once.  
Garrus had become more obsessed with being the best possible marksman, and you could hear him practicing his shooting nearly 24/7. Tali, was always with him, but no one heard them saying anything to each other. Ashley had spent most of her time in nature, like James, but she had been on a quest to find inspiration for her own poetry. Liara had found one of her pages once, only to be disappointed because it only contained incomprehensible scribbling.  
It hadn’t been a secret that Traynor had been romantically involved with the Commander, and now it was no secret that she had been devastated by the apparent death of Salem Shepard. When you talked to her she seemed oddly happy and always had a wide, unnatural-looking smile on her face. Engineer Adams had reported finding her staring down the barrel of a pistol, although he had luckily been able to talk her out of it. Although this wasn’t a public order, Liara had told the crew members she trusted the most to make sure that Samantha didn’t get a hold of any belts or ropes.  
Liara forced herself to focus on the present, rather than the hellish month that they had spent surviving on this unknown world. “We have to get off of this planet,” she said, “I’m pretty sure that we are still fairly close to the Charon relay. We just have to get the Normandy off the ground, and then it shouldn’t take too long to get to Earth. But first we need a Commander for the voyage.”  
Surprisingly, Garrus spoke first, “Tali is the new Commander. She is an Admiral, which makes her the highest ranked of anyone here.”  
“Garrus knows the Normandy better than anyone, hell, he’s calibrated it so much he basically built the whole thing,” James suggested.  
“Why not you, Joker,” Cortez said, “You’ve been with this ship longer than anybody else.”  
“I’m just fine with what I’m doing right now,” Joker said. It was obvious that he had something else to say, but he kept it to himself.  
“What were you going to say, Jeff?” Liara asked.  
“Nothing. It’s nothing,” he answered firmly.  
“What about Ashley?”  
“What about me?”  
“I wish Thane was here.”  
“Mordin would be a shitty Commander.”  
“So would you.”  
“I still vote Garrus.”  
“Wouldn’t it be like Captain Jack Sparrow if Jack was here?”  
“Dumbass.”  
“Everyone just shut up!” an unexpected voice said. Everyone turned to look at the speaker. The distant look and forced smile had been wiped from Traynor’s face, had been replaced with a determined expression that was more familiar to everyone. “Shepard would have hated for all of you to be arguing about this. She would have just gone and gotten the right thing done. So all of you should just pull yourselves together and do whatever has to be done.”  
Everyone sat in a stunned silence. After a pause, Joker said, “I wasn’t sure if I should say this or not earlier, but now it’s right. Shepard told me after she blew the Cerberus base up that she wanted Sam to be in charge of the ship if anything happened to her.”  
Samantha looked surprised, but after a second she calmly said, “Salem is still alive. However, if that is really what she said, I’ll get the Normandy back to Earth so that I can see her again.”  
“Well unless anyone has any objections, it looks like we have a new Commander, at least until Earth,” Liara said, and amazingly, no one disagreed.  
Days later, Ashley and Garrus were looking at the Normandy. More work had been done to repair the ship in the last three days than had been completed in the month that they had spent before the meeting where they had decided their new Commander. “It looks like the legs are becoming the ‘king of kings’ again,” Ashley commented.  
“Hmm?” Garrus wordlessly asked.  
“’Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!’ The king was saying that no would ever be more well-known and powerful, because after all, he had a gigantic statue. Shelley was telling the mighty to despair, because they would eventually fall and be forgotten. The Normandy was the best ship ever made, until it crashed here. What if the statue was rebuilt, and Ozymandias rose again?”  
“Some people would say metaphors are best left unexplained,” Garrus said.  
“Some people are assholes.”


End file.
